LATE CENOZOIC SEDIMENTATION AND UPLIFT HISTORY ON THE MID-NORWEGIAN CONTINENTAL-SHELF

Four Mid(?)/Late Cenozoic sedimentary units are recognised on the mid- Norwegian continental shelf: (1) A thin Miocene unit, (2) a ''deltaic complex'' variously dated to be of Oligocene or Early Pliocene age; (3 ) A Late Pliocene-Early Pleistocene low angle prograding unit and (4) a Mid/Late Pleistocene blanketing diamicton. The deltaic complex which extends along the Norwegian coast from the Lofoten Islands in the nor th to at least 62 degrees 45'N, is inferred to be the result of region al uplift of Fennoscandia during Oligocene or Early Pliocene times. As a result of further uplift and regional glaciations during the Late P liocene-Early Pleistocene, a system of low angle prograding sequences of mainly glacigenic sediments were deposited. Inferred glacial erosio nal forms suggests periods of grounded ice on the continental shelf. T he sedimentary regime was dominated by subglacial sediment input to th e shelf edge and later reworking by gravity flows down the continental slope. At first most of the sediments within the study area were deri ved from the Lofoten area in the northeast. Later the progradation had a more east-west direction. During the Late Pliocene/Early Pleistocen e period the shelf edge prograded about 100 km, and an average sedimen tation rate of 42 cm/10(3) years is found.